The early magazine tests sounded good, but the
way everyone found out that the new Yamaha R6 was
really,
really fast ...was through the efforts of
Thorvald Saeby & Team Yamaha Motor Norway and Mototune !!

Click the pix to enlarge...

'99 Team Yamaha Motor
Norway.

Thorvald Saeby
Enters Victory Lane At Daytona !!.

Josh, Thorvald and 3rd
place David Rose celebrate, while Josh Hayes' mechanic, Barry McMahon compliments us
on the speed of our bike.

The
'99 Daytona NASB 106 hp. Race...
The Best Roadrace I've Ever Seen.
If you were there, you saw
mechanics and racers drop their tools and rush to the fence to watch
one of the most exciting races ever! Josh Hayes and Thorvald Saeby
instantly separated themselves from the rest of the field, and an
epic battle began. Josh had Thorvald covered on the brakes, but the
R6 was much faster than Josh's Suzuki.....

Since Josh was so good on the brakes, Thorvald decided to sit back
and avoid passing on the banking. It was
a smart idea, and except for a couple of "test passes" at
the start finish line, he stayed in second for most of the race. On
the last lap a lapped rider almost crashed in front of Thorvald and
he had to hit the brakes exiting the chicane. Josh Hayes won, and
Thorvald came in second.

The rules for this class require that the bikes weigh
over 385 lbs. and can't have more than 106 horsepower. After the
race the bikes have to be weighed and dyno tested for peak
horsepower.
Although the bikes weighed nearly the same, Thorvald is taller
and weighed at least 20 lb more than Josh. Josh's Suzuki
dynoed at
104
hp. EVERYONE
there thought for sure we'd go waaaay over the limit !!
What did we have: 101.8 hp.

The dyno guys' jaws dropped so fast , they almost hit the floor !!

How
did we make the R6 go so much faster ... with 2.2 less
horsepower ??

The
Secret is Being Revealed in Power News Magazine.

After practice, a
Yamaha R1 (1000 cc) racer came into our garage and asked Thorvald:

" Is That A European R1 ??? "
He told us that the Yamaha Motor Norway / Mototune R6 was so fast that he
couldn't stay in the slipstream (draft), and lost a distance of 20 yards on the
top speed section of the Daytona banking !!

172 MPH
!!!! That's the speed Thorvald
was clocked at on his R6 racing at Daytona... top 600 That's 7 MPH Faster Than The
Yamaha Factory Teams Best !!

Thorvald Saeby leads Factory
Yamaha rider Tommy Hayden Through The East Horseshoe.
Tommy later visited our garage to compliment us on the speed of our bike !!

A
local Florida newspaper reporter named Godwin
Kelly
sought us out and wrote this article about the amazing new Mototune R6
and Thorvald's world - first R6 roadrace
wins.

600 SupersportWe fixed the bike as best we
could, just barely in time to make the grid. In fact we were still
working on the bike as the sign went up for the warm up lap. The
front end was so tweaked that the front wheel wouldn't turn more than 1/4
way when it was spun by hand.

Everyone's nerves were on the ragged edge, especially the Thorvald's!
When the race started Thorvald lurched the bike forward a couple of
feet ....and realizing what he did he hit the brakes. Rules are
rules and the officials ruled that he jumped the start ...Ooops
!

He had to take a STOP and GO
penalty.

The penalty requires the rider to pull off the track into the pits
and make a complete stop, then accelerate back onto the
racetrack.... meanwhile the other riders are passing by at over 160
mph. It's a loss of more than 20 seconds !!

As you can imagine, getting a stop 'n go penalty in an AMA
Supersport race at Daytona usually means:
"Game Over"Despite the
penalty Thorvald never gave up, and made up an incredible 12 places to
finish 18th place, beating the #1 plate holder Steve Crevier in the
process.
Even though the front wheel was binding, the R6 was so fast that
Crevier was grabbing onto the bodywork down
the back straightaway to get a tow !!

It was one of the most awesome displays
of heroics on the part of
Thorvald and his mechanics this sport has
ever seen.

Teamwork !!

Mototune carefully built the motor following the AMA supersport rules to the letter.

Fast Bikes' Jorgen Johnsen & Mototune invented a jet kit for it and kept it jetted right every time
the weather changed.

The other Norwegian mechanics, Espen and Cato stayed on top of the chassis
tuning all week long.

THORVALD SAEBYRode the wheels off the bike !

Make your own R6 run like a CHAMP !!

Read about the
many Yamaha R6 speed secrets
we learned at Daytona '99 :